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With a flicker of anger in his blue eyes, Lehmann — a key member of the Arsenal Invincibles team — said: “That is so disrespectful.

“The players should have tried to hit that plane with the ball, to defend their manager.

“A single guy comes and holds a banner up, that’s his opinion, fine.

“But hiring a plane? Come on, it’s too much.

“Even now the guys who are against Arsene they should recognise it has gone too far.

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SunSport reporter Dan King meets Lehmann in Munich

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Lehmann believes the criticism of Wenger has been harsh

“The people that hold up their banners saying ‘Wenger Out’ don’t hold up banners saying they want x, y, z to come in because this guy will guarantee success.

“Bring Allegri in and we will win everything? Who is Allegri, with all due respect? He is in Italy. Will somebody like him bring success?

“When you look at the type of football he is playing, it doesn’t really fit Arsenal.

“None of them has a solution, someone who would guarantee them Champions League football and maybe win something.”

In fairness to the Arsenal fans, it is not their job to have a solution. That responsibility belongs to the board, whose members want their manager’s two-decade reign to continue.

Lehmann, 47, also remains a firm supporter of Wenger, but he is not blindly loyal.

The Frenchman arrived at Arsenal in 1996 as an innovator from abroad, a modern coach who would revolutionise English football.

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Wenger was dismissed the idea Max Allegri would be a good appointment

But now, in the way he appears to control or oversee every aspect of Arsenal, Wenger is the most old-school British manager in the Premier League.

Lehmann nods and smiles when SunSport raises the issue.

After all, even Wenger’s long-time nemesis Sir Alex Ferguson, in many ways the archetypal one-man club, recognised he had to adapt and delegate some responsibility in his latter years at Manchester United.

Lehmann said: “That goes in line with the change that has to be made at Arsenal.

“Due to all the new demands of modern football, the structure of the club probably needs someone to run the sporting department so that Arsene can focus just on coaching and setting up teams.

“Sometimes with a guy like him who really runs the club he needs a bit of support.”

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Lehmann won 61 caps in goal for Germany

Even if Wenger accepted the appointment of a director of football, it would not cure all Arsenal’s ills.
Wenger’s critics also feel he has been left behind tactically, with a new wave of foreign coaches like Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte leading the way.

Lehmann points to Conte’s success at Chelsea as evidence of how quickly things can change. But Arsenal fans are tired of failing to challenge for the title, which the Blues have won four times since the Invincibles’ season of 2003-04 — and as recently as two years ago.

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Lehmann conceded: “Arsene needs to change a little bit. He needs to slightly change his approach.
“The question is whether he is willing to change.”

Another aspect of his management Wenger might have to revise is his loyalty to players who keep failing to deliver when it matters.

Lehmann said: “The way it goes now most of the players know they are on the table for being replaced.
“If I was a player at Arsenal now, I would be scared. Unless I was happy to go to play somewhere else.”

Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil may well do just that, of course, but Arsenal fans do not have the luxury of changing allegiance.

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Lehmann won the Premier League title in 2004 as part of Arsenal's 'Invincibles'

Lehmann believes Wenger can still win some of them over and turn Arsenal’s fortunes around.

He said: “We’re not talking here about a club that is in big crisis.

“It’s a fantastic club. It’s very rich now, due to him and his fantastic work.